In 2023, Art4Giving donated to Prisoner Visitation and Support (PVS), a national nonprofit that offers a volunteer visitation program for people incarcerated in federal and military prisons throughout the U.S.
Founded in 1968, PVS’s mission is to provide prisoners with regular, face-to-face contact with qualified visitors to help them cope with prison life, encourage personal growth, and prepare for successful reentry into society.
PVS priorities visits for prisoners who do not ordinarily receive visits from family and friends, are in solitary confinement or on death row, or are serving long sentences. Over 300 PVS volunteer visitors see thousands of prisoners a year in 100+ prisons.
In 1972, PVS was granted permission by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to visit all federal prisons and prisoners in the country, and in 1975, the Department of Defense granted PVS access to all military prisons. To this day, PVS remains the only interfaith, volunteer visitation program in the U.S. authorized by both of these organizations to visit all federal and military prisons.
Over his years of incarceration at USP Tucson, Ross has seen PVS volunteers visits his fellow prisoners. By listening and caring, these volunteers bring joy to prisoners who rarely get visits.
With this donation, Prisoner Visitation and Support will be able to recruit more visitors and make a bigger difference.
“Sometimes in the prison visit room, I’ll see a volunteer visitor. They spend their weekend sitting across from and talking to their prisoners, some of whom haven’t been with a free person in many years. What big hearts they have.”
– Ross Ulbricht